Top Ten Tuesday: new-to-me authors read in 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.

This week is about new-to-us authors read in 2013 that we really grew to love

Many of those had books out before this year, but I just didn't get to them or was to stupid to see just how amazing they were.



Brenna Yovanoff - The Replacement / The Space Between
Definitely one of my favorite 'discoveries' of the year! The Replacement really tore me apart. I ached inside while I read this book, and yet I'm desperate for a re-read! Brenna's writing is simply breathtaking and her stories have a new, eerie feel to them. I didn't like The Space Between quite as much as The Replacement, but I'm still determined to read everything she writes.

Michelle Hodkin - The Mara Dyer series
Seriously, how did the cover/description for this ever put me off?! Was I mad? Mara wonders about that question too. She's such an unusual girl protagonist for YA! And then there's Noah. And the agonizing wait for book 3. Sigh. I read book 1 in a day. One year of waiting for one day of reading... the balance is a little insane :P

Kimberly Derting - The Pledge
One of my favorite dystopians. Also, I read it at exactly the right time - I was writing a paper on queenship and how queens exercised their power. The world building was amazing - can't wait for The Essence to come out in paperback next month!

A.G. Howard - Splintered
Wonderland, insanity, art, Morpheus, weird scariness and beautiful writing... what's not to like? I was looking forward to this one so much, and it didn't disappoint!

Brent Weeks - The Night Angel Trilogy
I totally re-discovered my love of epic fantasy this year, and this series... holy hell! It's over 1500 pages and I read it in a WEEK (pun not intended). The savagery, the reluctant heroism, the magic, the vastness and complexity of the world and the characters... just wow. I'm really sad it's over though. I hope Weeks writes another series set in the same world.

Veronica Roth - The Divergent trilogy
I know, another one I'm late to the party for. But Divergent electrified me. It made me feel so incredibly alive, as if I was right there alongside Tris! I know many liked Insurgent and Allegiant less, but I thought they were logical consequences of what happened before, and I have major respect for Veronica Roth ending the series as she did.

Tahereh Mafi - Shatter Me
Everyone said this was great, but for some reason I never believed them. I kind of lumped this one in the 'nope' pile together with Mara Dyer. And again I was WRONG. This book is so fantastic! The writing, the imagery and tropes felt new. Do you have any idea how hard it is to come up with a simile that hasn't been used a thousand times over?! I've got book 2 on my kindle and I'll probably read book 3 just after it comes out. So glad I won't have to wait forever to read the next one!

Lauren DeStefano - Wither
Again, I was blown away by the writing most of everything. The world building was great too, but it was the writing that really kept me hooked. Sadly, I thought Fever dragged too much, but I still plan to read Sever and see it all through to the end.

Karen Marie Moning - The Fever series
Another series I just breezed through. It took me a book or two to take to Mac as a heroine, but damn does she undergo some development! And then there's Barrons. For book after book, I kept wondering - just what the hell is he?!

Katja Millay - The Sea of Tranquility
I thought I should at least include one non-fantasy/paranormal/dystopian author, and Katja Millay made me cry like a baby. This book straddles the border between YA and NA but it's one of the most real (and thus painful) contemporaries I've read. Utterly absorbing.


Do we have any books in common on this list? What did you think of them? Want to berate me for waiting so long to read them? :P And what awesome new authors did you discover?

Stacking the Shelves: Foxes with Allegiant Adrenaline Rushes Meet Witches and Moths

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


Hey guys... I'm still alive. I never intended to take a one-and-a-half week blogging break but a combination of me being very busy and not feeling well happened and I just couldn't bring myself to write posts. It also took me an entire week to read Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is ridiculous because that book has only 230 pages. There just wasn't time to read :( I hope I can pick myself up again a bit and that the coming weeks will be better.


Here's what I got in the last 3 weeks:

Bought in print

Allegiant, by Veronica Roth

Prince of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence

I was so mad when my preordered copy of Allegiant didn't arrive until almost a week after release day, but now I haven't had time to read it >.< GAhhhh I'm sick of avoiding reviews! Need to get to it soon.
Prince of Thorns is a book I've been staring at at the store for over a year. When I went on Halloween because I was feeling so un-halloweeny (sadly) and heard that the staff dressed up (they looked awesome), I didn't want to leave empy-handed. I wanted something violent and bloody. On the first page, there was mention of crows and war and blood and corpses, so I had to get the book.
I realize that makes me sound like a psycho. Oh well.

My precious

You may or may not know that I'm into old books. I've wanted a nice copy of Swinburne's poems for a long time, so when I found one on ebay for only 10£ plus very reasonable shipping, I was delighted! It's really very pretty. There's even gold foil along the upper ridge of the pages.
The problem: When I opened it, the front cover fell clean off >.< So I brought it to a guy in the Old Town part of the city who has a bookbinder and book restorer workshop. He can fix it, but it costs me about 60 Swiss francs (65$). *sigh* It hurts, but it's worth it. That's my lesson - no more old books from ebay.

Now, on to the digital side of things...

For review / tour:

Angelbound, by Christina Bauer
Adrenaline Rush, by Cindy M. Hogan
As I said, I don't have that much time at the moment and have decided not to accept any more tour invites or review requests for the time being, but I just couldn't resist these two...

Bought ebooks

The Witch of Duva, by Leigh Bardugo
The Too-Clever Fox, by Leigh Bardugo
The Moth in the Mirror, by A.G. Howard
Red Fox, by Karina Halle
The Iron Bells, by Jeanette Battista

I had completely forgotten about Leigh Bardugo's novellas! Witch of Duva will tie me over until Siege and Storm is out in the right paperback edition to match Shadow and Bone.

As for Moth in the Mirror, it took until earlier this week for it to be on amazon in such a way that I could buy it from my location! Rather frustrating. But it was worth the wait :)

Red Fox was on sale, and I already have book 1 in the Experiments in Terror series. Haven't read it yet, but I loved Halle's style in another one of her books that I have read, so I'm sure this series is amazing as well. The Iron Bells was a spontaneous buy because I was intrigued with the world that was hinted at in the description.

Alright, I think that was all of them... as I said above, I haven't been such a good blogger lately as in writing posts and returning comments and such, but I need to get over myself so I promise to get back to everybody this time :)

Top Ten Tuesday: books I was 'forced' to read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.


This week's topic: books we were forced to read, be it required reading, the urging of friends, fellow bloggers... this can be both good or bad, and I have a few of each.



Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D'Urbervilles / Jude the Obscure
I study English literature, and these were parts of two different courses that I took. Let's just say that the books are not badly written at all and I understand Hardy's significance for the English canon, but they were not my thing at all. They were so depressing and unfair and I wanted to either shake the characters or know them over the head.

Jennifer L. Armentrout - Obsidian
Honestly? I was not initially interested. It's about aliens, and that's not usually my thing. But everyone loved these books and talked about how much fun they were... and about Daemon. I'm so glad I finally gave in and read them (not read Origin yet)! I laughed so many times while reading Obsidian! I love good banter XD

Rick Yancey - The 5th Wave
Remember what I said about aliens? Again, everyone went nuts about this book. I still wasn't really planning to read it, at least not in the near future. But for some reason I entered a giveaway... and won. Damn would I have missed out! There was a ruthlessness to the writing that I really enjoyed, and it was frighteningly realistic.

James Joyce - Ulysses
Everyone's strangely afraid of this... novel? As an English major, I thought that I should read it at some point. And it had better be in class, when we can discuss what it all means and how to best approach it. There's a class with Fritz Senn in Zurich at the James Joyce foundation, so every Wednesday at 8:00am I found myself in an old house with creaking floorboards and leaden windows, scooped up in a room with shelf upon shelf of books about Joyce and his works, being taught by this 85-year-old brilliant man who pretty much devoted his life to reading and writing and teaching about Joyce. It felt like a place left over from another era, where studying meant acquiring knowledge for knowledge's sake, not to collect credits for graduation. I loved it.

Gayle Forman - If I Stay
I know, right? Despite all the reviews, the girl-in-a-coma-thinking-about-her-life thing somehow put me off. I had a completely false concept of the theme and structure of this book. I bought it at the second hand store on a whim (and because I felt like I sort of had to) and could only bring myself to read it after being reduced to a sobbing mess by Just One Day. I just wanted more of Forman's writing, and bought Where She Went the morning after finishing If I Stay. Then I read it all the same day.

Deborah Harkness - A Discovery of Witches
I friend bugged me for a year until I finally read it, and I'm so glad I did! I loved the academic Oxford setting and the complex lore! It's really different from your usual paranormal read.

Veronica Roth - Divergent
Yeah, I know. The US covers never really pulled me in (I know everyone else loves them, but I prefer the UK ones) and I used to be really wary of dystopians. I've since warmed up to them. But it took A LOT of urging by blogger friends and the books showing up in I don't know how my TTT lists for me to finally read it, and devour it. I was... ignited by it. Needless to say, I have Allegiant on preorder.

Jane Austen - Emma / Persuasion
I had to read both of these for university. I have a really strange relationship to Austen's books. I like what she does and her use of structural irony. But she always has at least one character that is soooo annoying/mean/manipulative, and her heroines tend to be the 'strong through endurance' type. I usually have to metaphorically kick myself to make through the first half of the book before I start getting into it.

So, that's ten. I'm not sure they'd all count as 'forced' but I was reluctant about them or had no choice in the matter. I realized that I often sabotage myself when it comes to books I think I might love (like Divergent) and put off reading them for some reason, like I'm afraid to like them. Which sounds crazy. Anyway, what do you think of my list? And what kind of books made it onto yours?

Stacking the Shelves: Charming Assassins and Peculiar Prodigies in Paper Towns

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)

Alright guy, I'm back! I moved on Tuesday and Wednesday but I'm mostly settled now with internet running and everything. I've even re-shelved most of my books and DVDs! There are still boxes I need to take care of and the kitchen's a mess, but I'll get to that :) It feels sooooo good to have my own place again!
But on to the books I got in the past two weeks, because I had a great haul!

For review

Charming, by Elliott James
Copperhead, Tina Connolly
Avalon, by Mindee Arnett


Death Sworn, by Leah Cypess
Cruel Beauty, by Rosamund Hodge
A Beautiful Fate, by Cat Mann


Steampunk Darcy, by Monica Fairview

It's been a loooong time since I got so many review books at once! Special thanks to authors Monica Fairview and Cat Mann, as well as to Leah Withers from Macmillan! I'm really excited about all of them!


Bought ebooks


The Transfer, by Veronica Roth
Don't Breathe A Word, by Holly Cupala
Rumspringa, by Cari Ouweneel
The Assassin's Curse, by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Rumspringa was for free when I downloaded it early in the week. The Transfer was on sale so I had to have it, and I liked it a lot more than Free Four to be honest! Don't Breathe a Word is a book I've been staring at and wanting for 2 years so I thought it was about time I pushed that button... As for Assassin's Curse, I've been on an assassin bender with Brent Weeks' Night Angel Trilogy so anything with assassins, I want. And this one has pirates, too! Why was I put off by it before?!


Bought in print

The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachmann
Prodigy, by Marie Lu
Paper Towns, by John Green

After all the money I spent for moving I feel kinda guilty about this purchase, but yesterday was the last day I could get 20% off at the store instead of the usual student discount of 10%. So, you know, I had to make use of it! All three are books I've been wanting for months or even a year. So now I'm faced with the terrible question of What Do I Read First?!

Alrighty, you've seen my haul. And my question. Apart from the review books that are out soon, what should I read first? Recommendations? Also, I'm curious to see everyone else's haul :)
 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Fall 2013 TBR list

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.


This week is all about the books on our Fall TBR lists, be they books actually released around now or just books we are planning to read. My list is a mixture of both.



The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, by Holly Black
I can't believe I still haven't bought it! I'm so busy >.< But she's one of my top authors and I've been waiting for it for almost 1.5 years! I need it. I loved the world of the original short story.

Allegiant, by Veronica Ross
Obvious, isn't it?

The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
I've already borrowed it from the same friend who lent me book one, but I'm holding off because once I start there's no way I'm getting anything else done until I finish... and it's a big book. But I don't think I can wait too long because I'm going through withdrawal.



A Darkness Strange and Lovely, by Susan Dennard
Also on my stack of not-yet-read books. Also one of the next lovelies I'll get to. I can't wait to meet Eleanor and Daniel again!

Stray Souls, by Kate Griffin
This is a spin-off of sorts of her Madness of Angels series, so I had to have it. I love her writing style and the way she suffuses a supposedly ordinary urban setting with magic.

A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray
Because I always thought this book sounded amazing and I've never read one of her books before. It's also on the stack. I have quite a big stack of unread books.



The Falconer, by Elizabeth May
It's out next week I think and how could I not love a Scottish noble girl going out at night to hunt down and kill fairies in the Victorian age?!

The Way of Shadows, by Brent Weeks
I have a boxset of the entire trilogy (I'd been looking at it for at least 2 years before buying it) and I want to start it soon because... assassins.

Rogue, by Gina Damico
I LOVED the first two books in the trilogy! They were so funny XD Also, I can't resist reaper books.


The Fiery Heart, by Richelle Mead
This comes out in November and I don't know if that's still Fall or already Winter? Whatever. I want it. It has Adrian POV!! And the ending of Indigo Spell was o__O I can't see this going well, but I can't look away either.


Runners-up:
 Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano, Premediated by Josin L. McQuein


What do you think of my reading list? And what do you have on your TBR?

Waiting on Wednesday: Allegiant, by Veronica Roth

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine to spotlight upcoming book releases that we're excited about.


This week's pick:

Release date: October 22, 2013
Publisher: Harper Collins
Format: Hardcover, 496 pages

Goodreads description:
What if your whole world was a lie?
What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth’s #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.


I was way late to the party for this series but I read both Divergent and Insurgent in January. I can't wait for Allegiant now that the name and description are out and the Divergent movie is being filmed! I only just saw the UK cover that matches my editions so I decided to feature it here :)
Have you read the series? Are you as impatient as I am? And what's your can't-wait-to-read book selection this week?

Stacking the Shelves: the pretty cover edition

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to show off all the pretty book goodies we got over the past week. You can include print as well as ebooks, gifted, won, borrowed, bought, whatever...


I got quite a lot of books this week, even though I wanted to put myself on a ban. Yeah, epic fail. But I'm not really sorry, because what I got was awesome ^^ Some of it I had already ordered anyway... but now I really need to stop buying so many books!


Here's what I got for review:

The Nightmare Affair, by Mindee Arnett
Marking Time, by April White

I'm on the tour for The Nightmare Affair (stop on  February 28) and I'm excited for it! Can't dig into it right away though...
I was approached by the author about reviewing Marking Time after I saw it on someone else's blog and put it on my TBR. The description of time travel to the Victorian times, boarding school for gifted people, and Jack the Ripper really intrigued me!


Books I'd meant to order forever, finally did buy, and took ages to arrive:

Insurgent, by Veronica Roth (I'm reading it and forgot to put it on the photo)
Embrace, by Jessica Shirvington
The Faerie Ring, by Kiki Hamilton

Those are the ones I'd ordered new . I got Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson as a used book from Amazon in supposedly 'good' condition but yeah... I realized that 'good' is a very relative estimate -__-'

The Taker, by Alma Katsu
Lost in Time, by Melissa de la Cruz

These two I found in the bargain box at a local store for only 5 bucks each. That's about a third of what I'd usually pay, so yay :D I've been curious about The Taker for a while, and even though It'll take me time to catch up with the Blue Bloods series to get to Lost in Time, I'd have been stupid not to take advantage of finding it so unexpectedly.


Books I got free or cheap on Amazon:



Silver Lake, by Kathryn Knight
The Deepest Cut, by J.A. Templeton
Demon Kissed, by H.M. Ward (free on Smashwords)
Surrender, by Rhiannon Paille

So, this is it... I like all the books and hope I'll get to them soon! Which is actually fairly realistic with the print copies because I've been reading like mad lately. All the print books in last week's haul? Already devoured them. Writing reviews, especially for books I enjoyed, is so much harder though...

So what do you guys think of my haul? Have you read any of those? What should I start with when I finish Insurgent? And of course I'm curious about what you got this week, so leave me links :)